Decision 2010: Calgary Municipal Election

[MonctonGoldenFlames]

Originally Posted by gantenbein

Ouch. What did I do to you to be called ignorant?

I guess my point is that having policies on an issue firmly at the core of your platform constitutes 'talking' about it. It was also the main topic of the Eyeopener debate the other morning. Are the other candidates quiet about it? Absolutely.

Relax.

ignorance is the lack of knowing. you were ignorant of the fact that he never claimed what you thought he did.

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by Sir.Humphrey.Appleby

Winnipeg also spends something like 5 times the amount Calgary does on snow removal if my memory serves me.

Winnipeg gets a LOT more snow than Calgary most years, and it sticks around all winter for the most part. You can't even begin to compare the two cities' snow clearing plans, beyond the fact that we both get frozen water, and shovels are used to move it.

What kw is referring to are "Snow Routes", where it's illegal to park your vehicle during the winter, and general residential parking bans enacted a few nights every year to allow the city to completely clear snow. Both of these are completely unnecessary in Calgary, again because the snow here melts except for once-a-decade events.

[MalcolmTucker]

To clear residential street, all of them, we would need to likely spend as much as Winnipeg does to make sure we have the resources to enact the plan at times of snow. Can only get so far by blade equipping more vehicles and hiring casual contractors.

I am not saying it is necessary - got around in compact cars with all seasons just fine during the winters in Calgary - but people have to be honest about service levels, and costs. There is a reason further clearing has been rejected.

[Ferreth]

Originally Posted by suburb

I think that does say something, but at the same time, without zero based budgeting, it is quite possible that, like other areas, this one always ensures that it is a smidgen over every time. 'We have $1M left so lets send the trucks over a second time to deal with that last 2mm else we'll get less next year.'

It really requires a thoughtful review by people who understand budgeting and finances and have the patience and capacity to understand the subtleties.

You have SO hit the nail on the head with this one. So many times I have seen snow plows on my residential street in a lean snow year pushing minor amounts of snow around. It wasn't needed - it was spending money to use up budget. Yet if snow ends at 2am before a work day, you can bet there will be virtually zero roads plowed/sanded by 6am - even allowing for the small amount of equipment Calgary has.

[gantenbein]

Originally Posted by MonctonGoldenFlames

ignorance is the lack of knowing. you were ignorant of the fact that he never claimed what you thought he did.

Yeah, well as my point above makes clear, we have different views on that. He claimed there has been no talk on the issue, and I think Nenshi talks about it extensively (in addition to the forum on the radio dedicated expressly to the issue).

I have no desire to derail things, but I think you could moderate your language somewhat. If I want personal attacks I'll go to the Herald comments section.

[SubwayRev]

Originally Posted by kw5150

The salt also creates a big problem.... just as the snow gets packed down they salt the crap out of it and re-make the problem all over again. We have to cut down on salt in this city.

I was under the impression that Calgary hardly uses any salt at all.

[jeffwhit]

Just finished watching most of the Arts Vote Mayoral Forum video. It's very interesting (to me.) Naheed continues to exhibit a firm grasp on the relevant issues, and is able to answer succinctly and compellingly. Barb Higgin's must be being coached by someone who tells her to yell a lot, sheesh. I must say i was not unimpressed by McIver right up until the end, when he demonstrated a fundamental lack of understanding of what was the main concern of the community of Calgary community, which is how to stay in Calgary and practice your art, his answer, paraphrased, "maybe we can find you jobs." I don't think his intention is poor, but his understanding of the issue is non-existent. Gah.

The whole thing:

• Video Link

Edit: I'll give bonus points to Wayne Stewart for raising the issue of the quality of public realm when questioned about public art. He called downtown Calgary "a dreadful place" which I certainly agree with him on in specific cases.

[Radley77]

I came across this article written by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. I couldn't agree more. I would like to see all leading candidates consider ALL of these recommendations. I think someone had mentioned how crime and education are related, could one build a major educational institution in a place like Forest Lawn?

Public Safety is at the Core of Calgary's Greatness (Calgary Chamber of Commerce - October 1, 2010)

Feeling safe is integral to any city’s quality of life. Everyone wants to be safe and to have friends and family living in an environment free from fear. Lose this perception and citizens will not be comfortable walking the streets; arts and culture patrons will stop attending events; and tourists will pass our city by.

A recent study by Calgary Economic Development investigating why companies choose corporate head office locations shows that quality of life (including public safety) plays a major role in decisions.(1) Perception of a city’s safety also affects where the best and brightest workers want to live.

Right now Calgarians are still concerned with public safety. In an election issues survey, Calgary Chamber of Commerce members ranked public safety as a serious concern that had worsened since 2007. This sentiment is also shared by the broader community, who in the 2009 Citizen Satisfaction Survey conducted for The City of Calgary, ranked ‘crime / safety / policing’ as the second priority only to transportation issues.(2)

Our municipal and provincial governments have recognized this concern and prioritized crime prevention and safety. The Government of Alberta has launched the Safe Communities Initiative, which has funded 41 new Calgary police officers each year from 2008 - 2010. It has also provided resources for targeted initiatives such as Violent Crime Suppression Teams and funded preventative programs such as Start Smart Stay Safe, which works with both children and parents to prevent criminal involvement. In addition, The City of Calgary has stepped up, providing $25 million in additional funding for new officers.(3)

Results show that these community and police initiatives are reducing crime. Person crime per capita has remained flat for the past three years, falling 18 per cent since 2005. Property crimes per capita are falling consistently each year, down 22 per cent from 2005.(4) Calgary’s Violent Crime Severity Index has also fallen in recent years. Our city ranks below the national average with only Quebec City, Ottawa, Hamilton and Kitchener with lower scores.(5)

While community crime prevention initiatives and the Calgary Police Service’s model of beat patrols (‘boots on streets’) are working, we must stay vigilant.

Crime prevention requires a multi-faceted approach including: (6)

- Addressing drug and alcohol addictions;
- Improving our legal system;
- Preventative efforts with children, youth and young adults;
- Community action; and
- Strong policing.


It also entails discouraging crime through intelligent design to enhance the perceived risk of getting caught (e.g. removal of bushes and new lighting in areas at risk). And it requires particular attention to prevent disorderly behavior (e.g. broken windows, graffiti, garbage in streets) to prevent more serious criminal activity. This approach is most famously associated with former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in New York City, who had great results.(7)

The latter initiative took community support and a solid police presence. It required a strong commitment to front-line policing.

Our police force is challenged. Calgary Police Service operates with one of the lowest police officer to population ratios in North America. At one officer for every 619 citizens, Calgary ranks 18th overall in North America, substantially below Edmonton’s ratio of one officer for every 535 citizens.(8) Even with new resources Calgary’s ranking continues to decline.

Despite this resource challenge we have a well-respected police force. A study conducted for the Calgary Police Commission (the civilian oversight and governance body), indicates that 92 per cent of Calgarians rate Calgary Police Service’s performance as good or excellent.(9)

Our police force in Calgary dedicates the vast majority of its resources to front-line policing. Only five per cent of officers operate in a support/administrative role with about 80 per cent of the budget allocated to salaries. Therefore, budget cuts predominantly reduce officers in the community.(10)

What would a great Calgary look like in terms of maintaining and enhancing citizen confidence in public safety?

The Calgary Chamber of Commerce proposes that candidates for Mayor and Alderman consider the following recommendations:

- Continue to recognize the importance of public safety by prioritizing front-line police funding as a core budgetary item.
- Encourage expansion of the successful Beat Patrol Program to other ‘hot crime’ areas of the city.
- Work with communities to develop area-specific crime reduction strategies and support additional youth programs, and treatment facilities for alcoholism, drug addiction and mental illness.
- Encourage innovative urban design to enhance the perceived risk of being caught (e.g. continue with closed-circuit television cameras in high crime areas; encourage better street lighting, etc.)

By ensuring that we continue to have a city that is safe, and provides the supports necessary to help Calgarians escape the cycle of crime, poverty and addiction, we can ensure that we continue to make a great Calgary even greater.

SOURCES (see hyperlink below)

http://www.greatcalgary.ca/issues/grow-d...71-growth-and-development-article-5.html

[MalcolmTucker]

Only five per cent of officers operate in a support/administrative role with about 80 per cent of the budget allocated to salaries. Therefore, budget cuts predominantly reduce officers in the community.

This makes it easy to dismiss the usefulness of a review, but the opposite is true. The review shouldn't be budget based however, in my mind it would ask questions like this:
A) are there any areas that are overstaffed compared to need
B) can certain departments conduct there core mission with less people
C) can certain units be reduced to core staff and then draw extra staff from other areas in times of specialized needs (here I am thinking of the tactical team, but that is just my uninformed opinion, to my knowledge they are all full time, and that is likely not needed at all times, there may be other departments where this would work as well, or is already in place like I would guess crowd control)

[Bassic Lab]

Originally Posted by Radley77

I came across this article written by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. I couldn't agree more. I would like to see all leading candidates consider ALL of these recommendations. I think someone had mentioned how crime and education are related, could one build a major educational institution in a place like Forest Lawn?

Public Safety is at the Core of Calgary's Greatness (Calgary Chamber of Commerce - October 1, 2010)



http://www.greatcalgary.ca/issues/grow-d...71-growth-and-development-article-5.html

Student ghettos are not exactly low crime areas. Anywhere with a substantial population of young men is going to have higher crime rates than the norm. It would involve pretty minor crimes, like assaults, property damage, drug dealing, and anything else linked to intoxication, but it would not help matters. Students can gentrify a neighbourhood to a limited degree, they definitely add to an areas vitality, but the neighbourhood has to be really shitty for broke ass young people to make it any safer. There is also the issue of race in American examples. White, middle class, college kids displacing poor blacks can, despite any rational analysis of the cons involved in living around young people (fights, vandalism, public urination, etcetera), change the optics of a neighbourhood for the "better" because of certain ingrained cultural attitudes. Forest Lawn simply is not that bad of a neighbourhood and the people that live there are not racialized as dangerous. No one is going to move to Forest Lawn because they get to live next to a house with six nineteen year olds instead of a Vietnamese family.

[mersar]

So Hawkesworth released his ideas for the SWRR... he's proposing building the Highway 8 to Highway 1 stretch, then upgrading Glenmore from there to Deerfoot and calling it a day.

[suburb]

The momentum continues to be in Naheed Nenshi's favour. This article from Edmonton highlights how Edmonton mayoral candidates should look to Naheed as to how to leverage social media while also seeing people in person. It states that Naheed's support has increased 1500%, from 1% of decided voters to 15% now.

Nenshi has more than 3,000 Facebook friends and thousands more watching his YouTube videos and following him on Twitter, but he also goes out to as many forums and public events as he can.

"He went from one per cent when the polls first started to around 15 per cent now," Cournoyer said. That momentum has been generated, at least in part, by Nenshi's social media skills.

REFERENCE

[Jay in Cowtown]

Originally Posted by kw5150

Winnipeg also uses WAY too much salt on the roads. The contractors get paid per m3 of salt which I would hate to see in calgary. The trees die, the bridges fail and the cars are rust buckets.

Calgary Roads use straight salt too... which is fine when the temperature is -10 or warmer, but they lay it out up to -25. They created their own disaster the last 2 Decembers by making the streets wet when the forecast was for the temps to drop dramatically with strong winds and heavy snow. They had potholes of Ice which was completly avoidable... but the bonehead union workers in charge of Calgary Roads work on seniority and not thought process. You'd never see AT Highways in that condition for that long!

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by suburb

The momentum continues to be in Naheed Nenshi's favour. This article from Edmonton highlights how Edmonton mayoral candidates should look to Naheed as to how to leverage social media while also seeing people in person. It states that Naheed's support has increased 1500%, from 1% of decided voters to 15% now.



REFERENCE

That was just a blogger talking, there hasn't been any poll released that has him above 8%. Next week on the other hand, if a poll drops I would expect a significant bump.

[suburb]

Originally Posted by Sir.Humphrey.Appleby

That was just a blogger talking, there hasn't been any poll released that has him above 8%. Next week on the other hand, if a poll drops I would expect a significant bump.

Thanks. I didn't read carefully enough - and thinking 15% is conceivable I went with it.

I'm actually quite curious as to why there have not been more pollster polls - or do you think that limiting the number of such polls is on purpose as not to influence the public? I'm not sure if that poll saying McIver is way in front actually helped him or hurt him.

[MalcolmTucker]

Good polls cost a lot - like $15k +

[mersar]

Someone was doing a poll the other day, they called my girlfriends parents. Can't recall which polling company it was though.

[Innersoul1]

Originally Posted by mersar

Someone was doing a poll the other day, they called my girlfriends parents. Can't recall which polling company it was though.

Yeah, I participated in that poll. I recieved the call on Thursday night. Interesting, the way the candidates were listed. Questions asked who you would be voting for and listed Nenshi, Higgins, McIvor...in that order. Then who you would vote for if your #1 choicedropped out.

[MalcolmTucker]

^ polls unless pure low end 1990s style robo-polls usually rotate the candidates, the best are human calls unprompted, where you force people to name their choice (for example, when you prompt green party they poll at 8-11%, unprompted 4-8%).

I would guess the poll was likely for a candidate, to tell them who to attack - you need to cast your line where there are fish that like your bait.

[Innersoul1]

Originally Posted by Sir.Humphrey.Appleby

^ polls unless pure low end 1990s style robo-polls usually rotate the candidates, the best are human calls unprompted, where you force people to name their choice (for example, when you prompt green party they poll at 8-11%, unprompted 4-8%).

I would guess the poll was likely for a candidate, to tell them who to attack - you need to cast your line where there are fish that like your bait.

Interesting!